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Webinar: Beacon Communities Reshaping Landscape for HIT and Population Health
Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time — Presented by the Care Continuum Alliance
Federally supported “Beacon Communities” are at work now defining how health information technology will support accountable, evidence-based care in communities – especially for care of chronic conditions. Backed by $235 million in federal grants, 15 communities across the country are serving as Beacon Community pilots for eventual wide-scale, performance-based use of technology to improve our health care delivery system.
The goal of the webinar is to address
The fundamental nature […]
Healthcare IT News Highlights Mobile Health Expo Presentation
Mike Miliard did a great job in capturing highlights and key points of my presentation at the Mobile Health Expo conference earlier this week. You can read his story here.
Please write me at vincek@bhtinfo.com in you’d like a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.
Update: Neil Versel of FierceEMR also wrote up the presentation. Here’s a link to his concise, on-target article “HIE, mobility, open platforms start to knock down ‘walled gardens’ of proprietary EMRs.”
Care Coordination Metrics: One Can of Worms that NEEDS to be Opened
“Track who is on a care team — and share info with the patient.”
That’s just one of the summary recommendations coming from expert testimony given in a recent public hearing on how to improve care coordination through the use of health information technology. The Meaningful Use workgroup and Quality Measures workgroups are now wrestling with how to translate this recommendation into meaningful use criteria for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.
Seems like […]
Verizon Abandoning Walled Garden Network & Business Model: Implications for Healthcare
Wha…? why are we talking about Verizon…isn’t is a healthcare blog?
When a major, multinational company does a complete turnaround on its operating and business model, it’s worth noting and examining the reasons behind the switch.
Wireless Week reported on a presentation made at the CTIA conference this week by Verizon COO, Lowell McAdam:
In a nod to the future, McAdam also said Verizon Wireless will scratch its “walled garden” approach because “in a 4G world, we need to turn that guarded model inside out.” […]
A Dark Horse in ACO Formation: Large Physician Groups
Kudos to the AMGA (American Medical Group Association) for advancing the cause of physician-led accountable care organizations (ACOs)! A few days ago it “convened leadership teams from 22 leading medical groups and organized systems of care at the inaugural meeting of the AMGA ACO Development Collaborative”.
In many communities, hospitals (delivery systems) will be the “natural” organization to lead an ACO. Hospitals bring management expertise, IT, capital, and community relationships to the table as important assets.
Questions about Hospital-Led ACOs
I’ll try to keep an open mind, […]
Hospital Readmissions Avoidance “Programs” — Vendors and Hospitals Not All On the Same Wavelength
Last week I attended and participated in an excellent conference — the National Reducing Hospital Readmissions Forum sponsored by World Research Group.
One of my main take aways is to observe a simple — yet huge — difference in mindset between hospital executives and vendors.
Over the past few months I’ve heard many vendors with diverse health care offerings talking about building readmission avoidance “programs” that they want to sell to hospitals. Their idea here is to put together a soup-to-nuts offering of technologies and services […]
The Achilles Heel of ACOs? Shared Savings Payment Model Unlikely to Motivate Hospitals
Sometimes you read something and the full impact doesn’t hit you until hours — perhaps days — later. As I was out mountain biking today, the importance of something I ran across yesterday suddenly hit me.
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are today’s cure-du-jour for reforming the health care delivery system. Bob Berensen, MD of the Urban Institute strongly questions whether the shared savings model under current legislation provides enough economic incentive for hospitals to disrupt their existing core business of acute, inpatient care.
The dialogue […]
The State-of-the-Art of Care Management Software: Disconnected
Care management software is intended to help patients make critical connections across the health care delivery system. Today it’s used primarily by 3rd party care managers who are typically either employed directed or indirectly by payers. While not surprising, the state-of-the-art of care management software is that it continues to function as disconnected islands of information.
The  2010 Health Information Technology Survey (available at no charge) provides an insightful yet sobering snapshot of care management software. The study was sponsored by TCS Healthcare Technologies, the […]
“Disease Management” RIP
The Care Continuum Alliance has mercifully and wisely rebranded it’s name and eliminated the initials “DMAA”. See its press release: Care Continuum Alliance Launches New Brand for Population Health Improvement. (As a reminder, DMAA originally stood for Disease Management Association of America.)
I for one say “hurrah, and good riddance”.
Where Did the Term “Disease Management” (DM) Trip Up?
Status Report: HITPC and Workgroup Activities on HITECH Stages 2 & 3
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OK, let me be the first to admit that today’s “just-the-facts-ma’am” post might be a little dry…but trust me, its really important stuff to know in understanding the process of how the Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) and its workgroups are approaching formulating recommendations for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.
At this point at least two different workgroups are involved in developing recommendations for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.
A newly formed Quality Measures Workgroup. This group will “produce initial recommendations on […]